Men's Lacrosse Game Notes for the NCAA Tournament

Complete Postseason Guide in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

GAME #15
#19 Fairfield (7-5/4-1 GWLL)
vs.
#7 Massachusetts (11-3/5-0 ECAC)
Saturday, May 11, 2002 * 3:00 p.m.
Brown Stadium (16,000)
Providence, R.I.
Radio: WMUA 91.1 FM, Amherst, Mass.
(Click here to listen.)
Television: Fox Sports Net New York

SATURDAY'S GAME AGAINST FAIRFIELD
Massachusetts enters the game with an 11-3 record, while Fairfield enters the game with a 7-5 record. Both teams were automatic qualifiers for the NCAA Tournament. The Minutemen won the ECAC Lacrosse League title with a 5-0 conference record. The Stags won the Great Western Lacrosse League with a 4-1 conference record. Massachusetts is the No. 8 seed in the tournament, and Fairfield is unseeded. Only eight of the 12 tournament teams are seeded. This is the fourth all-time meeting between the two schools, with the Minutemen having won all three previous meetings. The last time the two schools met was on March 13, 1999, in Amherst, Mass. Massachusetts won the game, 15-6. The two teams also met in 1998 (13-4) and 1997 (22-3). This is the first NCAA Tournament appearance for Massachusetts since falling to eventual national champion Princeton, 11-9, on May 17, 1997, in a quarterfinal game. It is the first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance for Fairfield.

SCOUTING THE FAIRIFIELD STAGS
Fairifield enters the game having won three of its last four. The Stags are coming off a 15-8 loss to North Carolina on April 27. Prior to the loss to the Tar Heels, Fairfield had won three straight, including an 11-10 victory at Notre Dame to clinch the GWLL title. Fairfield is led offensively by junior attack Matt Buecker (29g, 6a), senior midfielder Rob Scipioni (10g, 17a), sophomore midfielder Rory McCarthy (10g, 15a), sophomore attack Troy Bamann (14g, 7a) and sophomore midfielder Tom Werney (16g, 4a). The defense is anchored by the goaltending of junior C.J. Kemp, who has started all 12 games. Kemp has a 10.20 goals against average and a .546 save percentage. The majority of the faceoffs are handled by sophomore midfielder Peter Vlahakis, who has won 144 of 235 faceoffs for a .613 winning percentage. The Stags have scored on eight of 38 (.211) extra-man opportunities. Opponents have been able to score on 21 of 52 (.404) of their extra-man attempts.

PLAYING THE SAME TEAMS
Massachusetts and Fairfield played five common opponents this season. The Minutemen had a 4-1 record against those teams, while Fairfield went 2-3 in those games. The Minutemen defeated Stony Brook, Brown, Harvard and Penn State, while losing to Hofstra. Fairfield beat Brown and Stony Brook, and lost to Penn State, Harvard and Hofstra.

THREE'S COMPANY; FOUR'S A CROWD
The Minutemen enter the NCAA Tournament as the only team in the country with three 30-goal scorers. Senior attackman Marc Morley (Canton, N.Y.) leads the way with 35 goals. Junior midfielder Kevin Leveille (Delmar, N.Y.) and senior attackman Dan Paccione (Amityville, N.Y.) each have 31 goals. Junior midfielder Chris Fiore (Freeport, N.Y.) needs just one more to reach the 30-goal plateau. Morley, Leveille, Paccione and Fiore have combined to score 126 of the 197 (.640) Minuteman goals this season. The Minutemen have a total of seven players on their roster with 20 or more points. Freshman Gene Tundo (Orchard Park, N.Y.) has 28 points, while sophomore Jeff Zywicki (Nepean, Ontario) has 24 points and senior Don Little (Clifton Park, N.Y.) has 20 points.

McFARLAND STRONG ON DEFENSE
Senior defenseman Matt McFarland (Garden City, N.Y.) has been the anchor of the Minuteman defense this season. He leads the team in ground balls with 94, and has shown a scoring touch this season with four goals and three assists for seven points. McFarland has consistently shut down some of the nation's top offensive players. He limited Navy's Eddie McKinnon to a goal and no assists. McFarland held the nation's top scorer, Hartford's Brian LeMastro, to two goals and no assists. He limited Harvard's Matt Primm to a goal and an assist. McFarland scooped up a season-high 12 ground balls against Syracuse on April 26.

IN THE FACEOFF CIRCLE
Massachusetts has used primarily two faceoff specialists this season, freshman attacker Craig Conn (St. Catherines, Ontario) and senior Dan Paccione. Conn has taken 192 faceoffs and has won 102 (.531) of them, while Paccione has won 85 of 154 (.552). As a team, the Minutemen have won 195 of 381 (.512) faceoffs. Conn is coming off his best game of the season. He scored two goals and an assist and won 20 of 26 faceoffs against Rutgers last Saturday.

RECAPPING THE RUTGERS GAME
Senior attackman Marc Morley scored a career-high six goals to lead Massachusetts to a 21-9 victory over Rutgers at Richard F. Garber Field. The Minutemen secured the ECAC Lacrosse title outright with the victory, finishing with a perfect 5-0 league record. No. 7 Massachusetts broke open a close game at the half with a season-high 11 goals in the third quarter. The Minutemen held a 7-4 halftime lead, but dominated the third quarter to take control of the game. Massachusetts outshot Rutgers, 20-5, and won 11 of 14 faceoffs in the quarter. The Minutemen were paced by the scoring of Morley, who had three of his six goals during the third quarter. Sophomore Kevin Glenz (Merrick, N.Y.) and freshmen Gene Tundo (Orchard Park, N.Y.) and Craig Conn all had a pair of goals during the Minuteman run. Each team scored three goals in the fourth quarter to close the game. Morley led all scorers with six goals, followed by juniors Kevin Leveille and Chris Fiore, who each had two goals and two assists. Senior Dan Paccione and sophomore Jeff Zywicki (Nepean, Ontario) both had a goal and three assists, while Glenz finished the game with three goals, and sophomore Neil Lundberg (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) had two goals and an assist. Jeffrey Duca led the way for Rutgers with three goals and an assist and John Flanagan added a pair of goals. Freshman goaltender Bill Schell (Mahopac, N.Y.) made six saves in the cage for the Minutemen, while Rutgers goaltender Chris Kenyon made 13 saves. With the victory, Massachusetts finished the regular season with an 11-3 record. It was the first time the Minutemen had recorded back-to-back double-digit win seasons since doing it in 1988, 1989 and 1990.

GETTING BACK TO THE BIG DANCE
Massachusetts will be making its 14th all-time NCAA Tournament appearance and first since 1997, when it advanced to the quarterfinals. The Minutemen clinched the ECAC Lacrosse League's automatic bid to the 2002 NCAA Tournament on April 20, with a 16-13 victory over Georgetown. Massachusetts is tied for eighth all-time in NCAA Tournament appearances.

SCORING MORE AND MORLEY GOALS
Marc Morley has scored nine goals over the last two games, including a career-high six against Rutgers last Saturday. Morley leads the team in scoring with 47 points on 35 goals and 12 assists. He has recorded at least one point in 13 of the 14 games, and has scored two or more goals 11 times this season. Since being held scoreless on April 13, Morley has scored 15 goals in the last four games. He reached the 100-point plateau for his career when he scored four goals against Harvard on April 17. Morley enters the NCAA Tournament with 113 career points on 77 goals and 36 assists.

TUNDO CONTINUING TO HELP OTHERS
Freshman Gene Tundo enters the NCAA Tournament leading the Minutemen in assists with 20. He is fifth on the team in scoring with 28 points and is coming off a two-goal, one-assist performance against Rutgers. Tundo had a team-high four assists in the 16-13 victory over Georgetown on April 20, that secured an NCAA Tournament bid. He has recorded at least one point in all but two games this season and has eight multiple-point games. He has recorded three or more assists in a game three times this season.

ZYWICKI STARTING TO COME INTO HIS OWN
Sophomore midfielder Jeff Zywicki is beginning to come into his own as a player. He enters the NCAA Tournament sixth on the team in scoring with 24 points. He has netted 13 goals and 11 assists this season. As a freshman, Zywicki had just one goal and two assists in seven games played. This season, he has been a scoring threat throughout the year, beginning the season with two goals and an assist against Hofstra. Prior to coming to Massachusetts, Zywicki was used to playing box lacrosse in his native Canada.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES
Senior Dan Paccione and junior Chris Fiore have both seen big jumps in their offensive production from a year ago. Paccione is currently tied for second on the Minuteman squad in goals with 31 and is third in points with 42. Last season, the attackman scored 13 goals and three assists for 16 points. He has become a major factor in the offense and is also the team's top faceoff man. Paccione has won 85 of 154 (.552) faceoffs this season, despite not taking any faceoffs last season. Fiore, a midfielder, has also seen his offensive production increase. He enters the NCAA Tournament ranked fourth on the team in points (39) and goals (29). He has scored at least two goals in eight of the last nine games, and has six assists over the last three games. Last season, Fiore scored 11 goals and eight assists for 19 points.

SCHELL(ING) THE OPPONENTS
Freshman goaltender Bill Schell has been solid in the cage since taking over the starting role on March 20, against Albany. Schell currently has a 10.27 goals against average and a .548 save percentage. He has shown a tendancy to play well in big games, making a career-high 20 saves against then-No. 3 Georgetown and stopping 15 shots against then-No. 2 Syracuse. Schell has made 10 or more saves in seven of the nine games he has started this season. He enters the NCAA Tournament with an 8-2 record, and has scooped up 36 ground balls in 10 games. Schell has made 108 saves, while allowing 89 goals against.

LEVEILLE CRACKS THE 100-POINT PLATEAU
Junior Kevin Leveille reached the 100-point plateau for his career when he scored the game's first goal against Rutgers this past Saturday. He added another goal and a pair of assists, and now has 103 career points. In his three seasons with the Minutemen, Leveille has scored 66 goals and 37 assists. He is currently second on the team in scoring with 43 points on 21 goals and 12 assists. He has been held scoreless just once this season (in the loss at Yale on April 13). In the four games since being held scoreless, Leveille has 12 goals and four assists.

AMONG THE NCAA STATISTICAL LEADERS
Senior defenseman Matt McFarland is ranked eighth nationally in ground balls per game. He is averaging 6.71 ground balls and has a team-high 94 on the season. Senior attackman Marc Morley is tied for 13th nationally in goals per game, averaging 2.50. He has scored a team-leading 35 goals this season. As a team, the Minutemen are ranked second nationally in scoring offense, averaging 14.07 goals per game. They are ranked eighth in man-up offense, scoring on 18 of 46 (.391) opportunities. Massachusetts is tied for fourth in winning percentage (.786) and is eighth in scoring margin (3.69).

THE D-MIDDIES
The defensive midfield is led by the play of senior Paul Hutchen (Lake Forest, Ill.). He is joined on the group by sophomore Justin Walker (Fairport, N.Y.) and freshman Greg Scott (Westport, Conn.). Hutchen, who is the team's fastest player, has scored a goal and an assist this season and has scooped up 20 ground balls. Scott has 12 ground balls and Walker has eight. The defensive midfield is partially responsible for the Minutemen clearing the ball successfully on 249 of 319 (.781) attempts. They also helped Massachusetts finish fourth in the ECAC in scoring defense, allowing 9.79 goals per game.

JUST A FEW EXTRA THOUGHTS . . .
This is the third time head coach Greg Cannella has led the Minutemen to the NCAA Tournament. He also did it in 1995 and 1997. Cannella made two trips to the NCAA Tournament as a player with the Minutemen in 1987 and 1988, and he also made one as an assistant coach in 1993... Every member of the Minuteman team has a sticker with the #43 on their helmet, and they all wear a black sweat band in memory of former Minuteman Eric Sopracasa, who passed away during a lacrosse practice on May 5, 1999.

Scoreboard

University of Massachusets Athletics

Related News

Related Videos